Ways to Use Reform Judaism Magazine with Adult Learners

Reform Judaismmagazine is a great learning resource for adult Jewish learners. Here are a few suggestions on how to use it.

1. Magazine Club

Choose articles to discuss with a group (chavurah, parent group, Sunday mornings during religious school, empty nesters, parent/teen group). You can select all of the RJ articles around a given issue topic (Israel, ethics, God, holidays, rituals, etc.) or a population (such as young people and college students) by looking at the menu bar and the drop-down offerings on the Reform Judaism magazine website ( A number of articles have companion study guides online; to find them, click on the Discuss RJ link at the top of the homepage. Instant curriculum!

You can also use the magazine for your Book Club! Each quarter the magazine includes the Union for Reform Judaism’s recommendations of Significant Jewish Books as well as reviews of the works. See the for the recommendations and companion study guides.

2. Cooking Class

Use Jewish culinary expert Tina Wasserman’s column in Reform Judaism magazine as a basis for a cooking class that goes deeper in exploring the Jewish roots of cooking traditions. At click on the Cooking menu bar, where you’ll see the drop-down menu allowing you to access all of the cooking articles, organized by Jewish holidays and the seasons. You can do this as a follow up to the cooking unit that is available online Tina, the author of Entrée to Judaism(URJ Books & Music), is also available to serve as a culinary artist-in-residence at congregations throughout North America.

3. Kick-Off/Follow-Up

Use articles on a particular topic as a kick-off or follow-up to a planned program. The magazine has covered almost every programmatic topic, and finding those articles online is easy at the new website example, organize a panel discussion about conversion, send participants the link to “Encouraging Conversion”( before the event, and have copies of the articles available to attendees for take home as well.

4. Learning Segment of a Meeting

Take 10 minutes during any committee or board meeting to discuss a relevant topic. If you have a topic, use the menu bar at the magazine homepage to find/print/share/converse about the ideas generated by the articles. If you seek a topic, look at articles in a recent issue to select the topic. Give the group a chance to discuss it.

5. Speak/Blog

Summarize and react to an article on the bimah as part of a rabbinic or lay sermon, or on your synagogue’s website or blog. Send people the link to consider more. For example, as Chanukah approaches, reflect on “Becoming a Maccabee” ( and share the article, or discuss what creative approaches your congregation might wish to adopt for the holiday and send congregants the link to “A New Spin in the Synagogue” as fodder for conversation. On the you will find all Chanukah-related articles by clicking on Holidays on the menu bar and selecting Chanukah from the drop-down menu.

6. Connect with College Students or Teens

Use the articles as an opportunity to talk about Judaism with grown children. Subscribe ( your college-aged students and make time to discuss an article when the issue comes in the mail.Share with them articles in current and past issues that have been written by young people of about their age. Make sure that both high school and college students are familiar with the RJ Insider’s Guide to College Life, published every fall, which offers a variety of ideas on how to select and get accepted to a school, as well as how to navigate college challenges and make the most of the experience, all through a Jewish lens; it also offers the only chart of the Top 60 Schools Jews Choose & The Top 20 By Percentage of Jews for easy college comparisons. To find and share all of this content go to and click on the College/Youth menu bar.

Also, encourage young people to share their perspectives about the magazine content by:

  1. Voting their View (at the homepage) of the issue debated on the back page of the magazine (their vote will count in the poll published in the subsequent issue)
  1. Sending a letter to the editor (clicking on Submissions on the homepage). Many letters by young people make their way into print.
  1. Adding a comment to a blog about a magazine article at
  1. (For day school students): contributing to the magazine’s Day School forum, answering questions about how they relate to heroes, social action, technology, the Hebrew language, and more. Visit

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